Twenty minute video chat with Slayer’s Kerry King posted online

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During a quick break from the Monster Mayhem tour, Slayer’s Kerry King gave a lengthy video interview with Nikki Blakk, the host of Californian metal radio show ‘Metal Zone’. You can watch their complete chat below.

Slayer are still performing with Exodus’s Gary Holt as second guitarist, since Jeff Hanneman is still in his long recovery process from contacting necrotizing fasciitis in 2011, which was believed to be caused by a spider bite.

Also appearing with Slayer on the Monster Mayhem tour are Slipknot, Anthrax and Motorhead.

Sigur Ros add two more dates to Australian visit

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Sigur Ros, Iceland’s premier atmospheric soundmakers, have added two extra dates to their Australian visit.

The band were already confirmed for three shows at the Harvest Festival, but now fans can catch Sigur Ros at two headline shows of their own.

The dates are:

11th November – Werribee Park, Melbourne*
13th November – Belvoir Amphitheatre, Perth (18+ only)
15th November – Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide
17th November – Parramatta Park, Sydney*
18th November – Riverstage, Brisbane*

*Harvest Festival shows

Beth Orton to play a run of UK live shows in November/December

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It’s been four years since Beth Orton released her last album ‘The Comfort of Strangers’. For the last three years, she’s been largely out of the spotlight altogether.

This year, she returns with a long awaited new album. The title and release date for the album are still unconfirmed, but Orton has confirmed a short run of live dates scheduled for the end of the year, including one at London’s Union Chapel.

The confirmed dates are as follows:

Sheffield City Hall (November 27th)
London Union Chapel (December 5th)
Nottingham Rescue Rooms (December 6th)
Bristol Thekla (December 7th)
Manchester Royal Northern College Of Music (December 9th)
Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms (December 10th)
Glasgow Oran Mor (December 13th)

Editorial Comment: Def Leppard to re-record entire back-catalogue? No thanks.

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It has been announced that Def Leppard are planning to re-record their entire back catalogue.

The news comes following a royalties dispute with Universal. Frontman Joe Elliot has said “We’ll just replace our back catalogue with brand new, exact same versions of what we did“.

Exact same? It’s never going to be. Not ever. It can’t be. After all, not only does Joe Elliot sound different these days (although he’s supposedly working on getting his old voice ready for the new recordings), but rather understandably, Rick Allen doesn’t play in the same way he did pre-’87. Vivian Campbell is a superb guitarist, but do we really want repackaged versions of the band’s early albums with him playing Steve Clark’s guitar parts, no matter how great they’ll be? Steve Clark’s memory is kept alive by his recordings with Def Leppard throughout the 80s, and the idea of replacing those recordings is incredibly insensitive.

At REAL GONE, we love Def Leppard but this news is an absolute travesty. This dispute over royalties could lead to the Leps pissing on their legacy. This could turn out far worse than when Ozzy Osbourne issued remasters of ‘Blizzard of Ozz’ and ‘Diary of Madman’ with completely new rhythm tracks.

The crux of the matter is essentially this: Re-recordings can be fine, but the fact that Def Leppard plan to completely replace classic albums like the multi-million selling ‘Pyromania’ and ‘Hysteria’ leaves a very bad taste in the mouth. Granted, most existing fans should already own most – if not all – of the back catalogue already but the idea that, in the future, any new fans will only be able to buy potentially inferior re-recordings can surely only harm the band’s reputation.

The only people who hope to gain anything from this are the band themselves. Although long-term supporters and fans may welcome new recordings as an alternative, they shouldn’t be a replacement. New fans could always track down second hand copies of the proper recordings and, in the event of this all actually happening, would be strongly recommended to do so. If they did, Def Leppard wouldn’t earn any extra royalties from those either, of course, so this is potentially a losing situation for everyone concerned.

The band have already recorded new versions of their classic hits ‘Rock of Ages’ and ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’. It is not known how long the process of re-recording the complete albums will take.

Let’s hope this is just a band mouthing off, making threats and the whole sorry mess gets sorted quickly. That way a run of great albums (and even the poor ‘Euphoria’) will be allowed to stay as they are.

July 2012

I Like Trains: Autumn tour dates + new EP news

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In October, Leeds prog/alt-rock band I Like Trains (formerly iLiKETRAiNS) will be releasing a new EP.

‘Beacons’, a four track release, features ‘Beacons’ from the band’s 2012 full-length ‘The Shallows’ plus three brand new songs.

To tie in with the release, the band will embark on a lengthy European tour, visiting the following places:

OCTOBER

Sat 13th, City Museum, Leeds, UK
Mon 15th, Captains Rest, Glasgow, UK
Tue 16th, Cluny, Newcastle, UK
Thu 18th, Deaf Institute, Manchester, UK
Fri 19th, Guildhall, Leicester, UK
Sun 21st, Hare & Hounds, Birmingham, UK
Mon 22nd, Cargo, London, UK
Tue 23rd, Cooler, Bristol, UK
Wed 24th, Buffalo Bar, Cardiff, UK
Thu 25th, The Cellar, Southampton, UK
Sat 27th, La Maroquinerie, Paris, FRANCE
Sun 28th, De Boerderij, Geleen, NETHERLANDS
Mon 29th, Gebaude 9, Cologne, GERMANY
Tue 30th, Paradiso (Upstairs), Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS
Wed 31st, Rotown, Rotterdam, NETHERLANDS

NOVEMBER,

Thu 1st, Knust, Hamburg, GERMANY
Fri 2nd, Zoom, Frankfurt, GERMANY
Sun 4th, Magnet, Berlin, GERMANY
Mon 5th, Kranhalle, Munich, GERMANY
Tue 6th, Chelsea, Vienna, AUSTRIA
Thu 8th, Beatpol, Dresden, GERMANY
Sat 10th, Biomill, Laufen, SWITZERLAND
Sun 11th, Salzhaus, Winterhur, SWITZERLAND

‘Beacons’ is released on October 15th.